Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease evolution

The evolution of COPD is characterised by three basic traits:

• In the majority of patients the symptoms are persistent, and the disease progresses, fairly rapidly, despite the patient quitting smoking.
• Appearance of recurrent symptoms (decompensations), with a frequency associated with a restriction in physical activity and with a deterioration in their quality of life.
• There is no curative treatment, and the loss of lung capacity is not recovered. However, the available treatments improve the symptoms, and slow down the worsening of the disease.

Quitting smoking and home oxygen therapy (when the patient has chronic respiratory failure) are factors that could lead to a more significant change in the evolution of the disease.